Automated decision systems.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary text mentions expanding perjury but this is not supported in the official digest.

Regulating High-Risk Automated Decision Systems

The bill requires developers and deployers of high-risk automated decision systems to conduct an impact assessment before making them available, mandates state agencies to keep these assessments confidential, allows the Attorney General or Civil Rights Department to enforce compliance through civil actions, and prohibits state contracts with violators unless they prove compliance.

What This Bill Does

• Requires developers and deployers of high-risk automated decision systems to conduct an impact assessment before making them publicly available or deploying them.
• Mandates that a state agency requires the developer of a high-risk system used by the agency to provide a copy of the impact assessment, which must be kept confidential.
• Allows the Attorney General or Civil Rights Department to bring civil actions for enforcement and permits violators 45 days to cure violations upon receiving notice.
• Prohibits state agencies from awarding contracts to people who have violated this law unless they certify that their system complies with all relevant laws, including civil rights laws.

Who It Names or Affects

• Developers and deployers of high-risk automated decision systems
• State agencies that use such systems
• The Attorney General or Civil Rights Department

Terms To Know

Impact Assessment

A report evaluating the effects a new system might have before it is used.

High-Risk Automated Decision System

An automated system that makes important decisions and could cause harm if not functioning correctly.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify the consequences for developers or deployers who fail to fix violations within the given time.
• It is unclear how this law will be enforced for systems used by private companies, not state agencies.

Official Summary Text

SB 420, as amended, Padilla.
Automated decision systems.
The California AI Transparency Act requires a covered provider, as defined, of a generative artificial intelligence system to make available an AI detection tool at no cost to the user that meets certain criteria, including that the tool outputs any system provenance data, as defined, that is detected in the content. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 grants a consumer various rights with respect to personal information that is collected or sold by a business, as defined, including the right to direct a business that sells or shares personal information about the consumer to third parties not to sell or share the consumer’s personal information, as specified.
This bill would generally regulate a developer or a deployer of a high-risk automated decision system, as defined, including by requiring a developer or a deployer to perform an
impact assessment on the high-risk automated decision system before making it publicly available or deploying it, as prescribed. The bill would require a state agency to require a developer of a high-risk automated decision system deployed by the state agency to provide to the state agency a copy of the impact assessment and would require the state agency to keep that impact assessment confidential. The bill would also require a developer to provide to the Attorney General or Civil Rights Department, within 30 days of a request from the Attorney General or the Civil Rights Department, a copy of an impact assessment and would require the impact assessment to be kept confidential.
This bill would authorize the Attorney General or the Civil Rights Department to bring a specified civil action to enforce compliance with the bill, as prescribed, and would authorize
the Attorney General or
the Civil Rights Department to allow
a developer or deployer to cure, within 45 days of receiving a certain notice of a violation, the noticed
violation and provide an express written statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the violation has been cured. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
violation, as prescribed.
This bill would prohibit a state agency from awarding a contract for a high-risk automated decision system
to a person who has violated,
unless the person to whom the contract is awarded has certified
that the high-risk automated decision system does not violate,
among other civil rights laws, the bill.
By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory
provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF